Stepping stones for biological invasion: A bioeconomic model of transferable risk

Herein we model the widespread dispersal and management of an invasive species as a weak-link public good. The risk of introduction is driven in part by economic activity, is influenced by policies directed at the risk, and economic activity responds/adapts to the risk. Framed around recent introductions and rapid spread of dreissenid mussels in the Western United States, we find three key results. First, partial equilibrium estimates of welfare loss are significantly overestimated relative to general equilibrium estimates. If ecosystem services and market goods are substitutes the partial equilibrium bias is greater than if they are compliments. Second, well-intended policies do not necessarily reduce overall risk; risk reduction actions can transfer risk to another time or location, or both, which may increase total risk. Third, policies of quotas and inspections have to be extreme to improve welfare, with inspections having advantages over quotas.bioeconomic, invasive species, risk, weak-link, welfare, Environmental Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty, Q2, Q26, Q57,

Screening for hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with hepatitis C virus infection

There is no evidence that it is beneficial to screen for hepatocellular carcinoma in symptomatic patients with HCV. (Strength of Recommendation [SOR]: C, based on a systematic review and case series studies.) Neither serum AFP measurement nor imaging is an ideal screening test. Patients can be screened for hepatocellular carcinoma using AFP measurement or ultrasonography; these tests have similar sensitivity and specificity. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging offer increased screening sensitivity, but may be limited by cost and availability. (SOR: C, based on retrospective case series.) Combined testing with AFP measurement and ultrasonography improves sensitivity but decreases specificity

Exports and Externalities: the other side of trade and ecological risk and Technology Diffusion in a Competitive World

This paper develops a general equilibrium model to measure welfare effects of taxes for correcting environmental externalities caused by domestic trade, focusing on exter- nalities that arise through exports. Externalities from exports come from a number of sources. Domestically owned ships, planes, and automobiles can become contaminated while visiting other regions and bring unwanted pests home, and species can be in- troduced by contaminated visitors that enter a region to consume goods and services. The paper combines insights from the public finance literature on corrective environ- mental taxes and trade literature on domestically provided services. We find that past methods for measuring welfare effects are inadequate for a wide range of externalities and show the most widely used corrective mechanism, taxes on the sector imposing the environmental externality, may often do more harm than good. The motivation for this paper is the expansion of invasive species' ranges within the United States. We apply our analytical model to the specifc example of quagga and zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha and Dreissena rostiformis bugenis) invasion into the U.S Pacific Northwest.environmental regulation, tax interactions, invasive species, environment and trade

¿Es el emprendimiento una salida para la juventud marroquí?

Este artículo examina el comportamiento emprendedor de los jóvenes de entornos urbanos y rurales en Marruecos. A partir del proyecto europeo de investigación SAHWA (2013-2016), y con un enfoque metodológico mixto –encuesta y trabajo de campo etnográfico–, se intenta comprender las estrategias a las que recurren los jóvenes marroquíes para convertir su situación de «marginación» en la sociedad en iniciativas emprendedoras. ¿Qué significa el emprendimiento para los jóvenes en Marruecos, y cómo estos forjan y emplean las estrategias emprendedoras para vivir y sobrevivir? Tanto la encuesta como los tres estudios de caso que se exponen en este artículo muestran que los jóvenes marroquíes, a pesar de que son capaces de lanzar y desarrollar sus negocios –tanto agrícolas como culturales o comerciales–, siguen siendo extremadamente vulnerable

Behind the veil of agricultural modernization : gendered dynamics of rural change in the Saïss, Morocco

The Moroccan countryside is marked by rapidly changing rural realities. The Moroccan government frames and promotes these changes as linear development towards modernity and progress for all thereby only focusing on the experiences of some audacious men – ‘entrepreneurs’ and ‘modernizing farmers’. The aim of the study is to unveil Morocco’s agricultural modernization plan by illustrating how agrarian processes in the agricultural plain of the Saïss are not a logical, self-evident or smooth transition to a higher stage of development or modernity. They are a form of globalizing capitalist development which is messy and contradictory, and which is marked by, and re-produces existing gender social hierarchies. By putting the experiences that often “fall away” from agrarian analysis at the heart of my study I am to explore how gender and social differences come to matter in process of agrarian change and are intimately linked.</p

Improved Automated Analysis of Coronary Doppler Echocardiograms to Predict Early Coronary Microvascular Disease

Coronary microvascular disease (CMD) is a heart condition that frequently precedes the development of more serious heart diseases. Although it can be assessed through Transthoracic Doppler echocardiography (TTDE) by observing changes in coronary blood flow patterns, manual analysis of TTDE is time consuming and subject to bias. In a previous study, a program was created to automatically analyze coronary blood flow patterns by parsing TTDE videos into a single continuous image, binarizing and separating the image into distinct cardiac cycles, and extracting characteristic data values from each cycle. The program significantly reduced variability and time to complete analysis, but obstacles such as interfering noise and varying video sizes left room to increase the program's accuracy. The goal of this study was to improving the program's ability to handle challenging video variations and to remove unnecessary manual intervention to further reduce analysis time. To confirm this improved analysis, several videos were analyzed using both the original MATLAB program and updated Python program. Comparison of specific examples showed the new program was better able to identify and remove difficult noise objects, and more consistently and fully captured the Doppler region. This improved analysis has the potential to provide more insight into the early diagnosis of unhealthy coronary flow by offering a quick, easy, and accurate method of analysis.No embargoAcademic Major: Computer Science and Engineerin

Behind the veil of agricultural modernization : gendered dynamics of rural change in the Saïss, Morocco

The Moroccan countryside is marked by rapidly changing rural realities. The Moroccan government frames and promotes these changes as linear development towards modernity and progress for all thereby only focusing on the experiences of some audacious men – ‘entrepreneurs’ and ‘modernizing farmers’. The aim of the study is to unveil Morocco’s agricultural modernization plan by illustrating how agrarian processes in the agricultural plain of the Saïss are not a logical, self-evident or smooth transition to a higher stage of development or modernity. They are a form of globalizing capitalist development which is messy and contradictory, and which is marked by, and re-produces existing gender social hierarchies. By putting the experiences that often “fall away” from agrarian analysis at the heart of my study I am to explore how gender and social differences come to matter in process of agrarian change and are intimately linked.</p